Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Reviews Are Everything | Lefsetz Letter

“Driving Tesla’s Model 3 Changes Everything”

If you don’t want a Model 3 after reading the above review, you’re probably one of the Luddites who decried Napster, insisting that CDs were better.

I get CD quality on Deezer, in my pocket, around the world, at the touch of my screen. You want the discs why?

And on Spotify, the cover image fits the vertical screen, like on Snapchat, only Luddites are still into horizontal. And if you don’t have a large screen phone, you probably still use your mobile for talking. My goal is to never speak on the phone. And most people don’t. Data usage has gone sky high while audio has plummeted. Your mobile device is now a computer. Just like PCs demolished minis and mainframes, the mobile is already putting a dent in PCs. In a mobile world, why would someone want an immobile device? That’s how cassettes killed vinyl, mobility. As for streaming…

But the music business was led into the abyss, and ultimately its future, by its customers.

Automakers are not quite that stupid.

Or are they?

Reading the above article you’ll see that the Model 3 competes directly with the BMW 3 series and the Mercedes-Benz C series. And in many ways you get more bang for the buck. The Germans have dipped their toe in the water, MBZ is investing more than BMW, but when the tipping point comes…

The tipping point always comes. The best example is digital photography. For ten years we heard it was going to replace film. Didn’t happen. Then, within twelve months the worm turned and Kodak went into bankruptcy. The same way smartphones have killed standalone cameras. And you’ll get hobbyists who’ll go on about DSLRS, but even pros shoot on iPhones these days. I’m not much of a photographer, I don’t shoot many pictures, but when I blew up my 7 Plus snaps on my desktop (yes, I still have one, I’ve got EVERYTHING, I hate people reviewing and analyzing what they do not have or have not seen), I was stunned. As for the camera comparison between Apple and Samsung, I refer you to the article below.

And I want to let you in on a little secret… Typing with two hands on a large phone is just as easy as typing on a BlackBerry, so if you’re still using the latter device, it’s now time to switch.

Anyway, the above review convinced me that Tesla is gonna make it and change the industry. They’re burning cash, they can’t build the cars fast enough, but people said the same thing about Spotify and now it dominates.

But in any event, Tesla will be influencing competitors.

And Elon Musk has naysayers. Anybody with a profile today does. But he’s triumphing on his products as opposed to hot air.

The entertainment industry is built on hot air.

Used to be you could put out a lame product and through publicity and payments make it successful.

No longer.

I watch no visual entertainment, whether it be in the theatre or at home, without going to Rotten Tomatoes first.

Same deal with buying a product. I go to Amazon. I Google for further reviews.

All this talk about critics being irrelevant… They’re more relevant than ever before, it’s just that now EVERYBODY is a critic! But we trust certain sources more than others.

So, if you create something and the reviews are bad, don’t fight them, it’s futile, you have to start over.

People know your product is a stiff within minutes. Doesn’t even take a weekend. The opinion and the data doesn’t lie.

Which makes the same people who hated Napster angry.

And you can’t stop reading that Hollywood hates Rotten Tomatoes.

We’re moving to an era of excellence, good is not good enough. One star after another has failed in the marketplace. Lady Gaga, Katy Perry… No one is review-proof. They puff up these acts with endless publicity, but the word gets out and they fail.

As for radio…its power is greatly diminished. It plays what is reacting online.

And the younger generation is not listening. In an on demand world, music radio is an antique. Sure, radio still has power, but it has declined and will decline further.

And now my inbox will fill up with those who believe electric cars are propped up by subsidies, Samsung is better than Apple, radio is burgeoning…

But it doesn’t matter.

They’re all losing the war of data and reviews.

You can fund a study that says otherwise…

But the reviews and data don’t lie.

Heard anybody talk about Beats 1 Radio recently?

Case closed.

“Former Google SR. VP: ‘If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone. If you don’t mind being a few years behind, buy an Android”

[from http://ift.tt/2k9aO1A]

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